[The below open letter was issued to Chancellor Wise and the University of Illinois- Uraban Champaign (UIUC) Board of Trustees from Jewish faculty, staff, students, alumni and parents at the university in support of Steven Salaita. The letter was drafted by Samantha Brotman, alumna of Georgetown University’s Master of Arts in Arab Studies and current faculty member in the UIUC’s Intensive English Institute, and Rico Kleinstein Chenyek, a graduate student in the Institute of Communications Research, Latino/Latina Studies, and the College of Medicine. If you would like to sign this letter, please click here.]
University of Illinois Jewish Community Letter in Support of Our Professor Steven Salaita
September 3rd, 2014
Dear Chancellor Wise & Members of The Board of Trustees,
We, Jewish students, faculty, staff, alumni, and parents of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, are writing to object in the strongest possible terms to the firing of Professor Steven Salaita. As Jewish members of this campus community, we insist that you do not speak for us in your unjust actions. In no way do Professor Salaita’s words, tweets, or presence on campus make us feel unsafe, disrespected, or threatened, as your public letter indicated.
Your decision to fire Professor Salaita is in fact what threatens us as Jews. By pointing to anti-Semitism and anti-Judaism in an attempt to obscure politically and financially-motivated University actions, you minimize the Jewish voices of those who have resisted real and violent anti-Semitism. By conflating pointed and justified critique of the Israeli state with anti-Semitism, your administration is effectively disregarding a large and growing number of Jewish perspectives that oppose Israeli military occupation, settler expansion, and the assault on Palestine. We did not survive ethnic cleansing and carry on the legacy of our people to have our existence used to justify the genocide and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, or their unethical treatment when they speak out against the murder, violence, and displacement of their own people.
Furthermore, we insist that you not minimize the context within which Professor Salaita’s firing has taken place. It is within Palestinian right and that of us all to express opposition to the brutality to which we are and have been bearing witness in Gaza and all of Palestine, and to do so with sharp interrogation and anger. To brand this opposition as uncivil or unsafe enough to warrant the dismissal of a faculty member is not only a violation of academic freedom, it is a clear devaluation of Palestinian existence and personhood, with implications for others whose lives similarly have been and continue to be systematically attacked through state-sanctioned violence.
It is unfortunate that Professor Salaita’s critique, anger, dissent, and very existence on this campus have made some, donors or otherwise, within the UIUC community uncomfortable. However, there is nothing comfortable (or civil, for that matter) about Israeli war or occupation. While you pontificated over whether or not some comments made on social media were anti-Semitic, the U.S. sponsored Israeli military systematically murdered thousands of Palestinians. Now our campus has been denied an invaluable scholarly voice to help lead this community in a conversation about why as well as how to stop this from ever happening again.
The firing of Professor Salaita is the Israeli attack on Palestine coming to our campus. Just as we work tirelessly to oppose Israeli ethnic cleansing and displacement of Palestinians taking place in our name, we will ensure that the silencing of Professor Salaita and others like him does not take place in our name either. For all of these reasons, we insist that you reverse your decision and reinstate Professor Salaita immediately. The undersigned Jewish students, faculty, staff and alumni will not allow for anything less.
[**Addendum Added 9/20/2014, After the 102nd Signature** Given the recent decision on September 11th of the Board of Trustees not to approve Professor Salaita’s hire, and given the continued effort to control the conversation over Israel and Palestine by wielding accusations of anti-Semitism, we are now expanding the original message of this letter. We are also adding President Robert Easter to our list of recipients (see the recent news of his direct involvement in the firing of Professor Salaita: http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/email-contradicts-univ-illinois-presidents-statement-salaita-firing). The implications of the board’s decision reach far beyond the UIUC campus into a larger context of corrupt U.S. academic institutional support for Israel. Therefore, we invite all Jews who agree with the original spirit of this letter to sign below. We invite all Jews to stand with us in our continued opposition to the administration’s claim that it’s actions protect us. We invite all Jews to join us in our continued pledge to ensure that others do not conflate Judaism and Zionism or anti-Semitism with critique of the Israeli state. We invite all Jews to organize with us in support of our Professor Steven Salaita.]
In solidarity with Professor Salaita,
[Any Jewish person interested in signing the letter should click here.]
1. Samantha Brotman (Faculty)
2. Rico Kleinstein Chenyek (Student)
3. Jade Bettine (Student)
4. Zachary Poppel (Student)
5. Stephanie Brown (Student)
6. Jessica Landau (Student)
7. Ashley Price (Alumna)
8. Jonah Weisskopf (Alum)
9. Richard Grusin (Alumnus)
10. Michael Jinks (Alum)
11. Michael Levin, Ph.D. (Alumnus)
12. Mia Warshofsky (Student)
13. David Hamilton (Student)
14. Lennard J Davis (Faculty)
15. Anna Kornbluh (Faculty)
16. Ane Johnson (Faculty)
17. Rebecca Schumann (Student)
18. Robert Naiman (Alumnus `86, `89, `05)
19. Gabriel Solis (Faculty)
20. Molly Doane (Faculty)
21. Deborah Tomaras (Alumna)
22. Fabian Prieto (Student)
23. Stuart Levy (Staff)
24. Laura Nussbaum-Barberena (Student)
25. David Green (Academic Professional)
26. Sarah Sahn (Student)
27. Brian Dolber (Alum)
28. Michael Silvers (Faculty)
29. Jordan Litwin (Alum)
30. Stephen J Kaufman (Professor Emeritus)
31. Barbara Goodman (Alumna)
32. Marina Levina (Alum)
33. Belden Fields (Alumnus `60 & Professor Emeritus)
34. Bruce Levine (Faculty)
35. Jay Rosenstein (Faculty and Alum)
36. Lauren Goodlad (Faculty)
37. Kathy Lombardo (Community)
38. Kareem Aboor (Donor)
39. Walter Feinberg (Emeritus Faculty)
40. Lillie Gordon (Faculty)
41. Lisa Chason (Student, TA)
42. Jennifer Lieberman (Alumna)
43. Mónica G. García (Alum)
44. Brian Bell (Community)
45. Alfred Lerner (Alumnus `78)
46. Linda Remaker (Alum)
47. Heather Grossman (Visiting Faculty)
48. Ivan Ruiz (Alum)
49. Lally Gartel (Alum)
50. Jonathan Weissman (Alum)
51. Tamara Chaplin (Faculty)
52. Al Kagan (Professor Emeritus)
53. Jonathan Feinberg (Alum)
54. Alan Labb (Alum)
55. Nadine Dolby (Alum)
56. Eileen Thalenberg (Alum)
57. Ann Schubert (Parent)
58. Deborah Chassler (Alum)
59. Nina Barnett (Alum)
60. Amanda N. Harris, Ph.D. (Alum)
61. Abe Singer (Alum)
62. Lola Chenyek (Student Sibling)
63. Hamza Kishta (Alum)
64. Patricia Noll (Community)
65. Catherine Prendergast (Faculty)
66. Carol Martin (Faculty)
67. Alan Blitz (Alum)
68. Gildas Hamel (Student Family & UCSC Faculty)
69. Amanda Lewis (Faculty)
70. Deborah Cohen (Alum)
71. Martin Miller (Student)
72. Shara Jean (Community)
73. Professor Roger Bromley (Alum)
74. Sahar Mustafah (Community)
75. Sarah West (Student, TA)
76. Melinda Miller (Alum)
77. Lauren Kaminsky, PhD (Alum)
78. Fabio Akcelrud Durao (Faculty)
79. Richard S. Esbenshade, Ph.D. (Former Faculty)
80. Hedy Epstein (Community)
81. Susan Kleinstein (Parent)
82. Armando Chenyek (Parent)
83. Ellen Gradman (Alum)
84. John Drier (Community)
85. Simon Hyde (Community)
86. Garrett Field (Community)
87. Fatiha Makloufi (Community)
88. Joanne Rappaport, PhD (Alum)
89. Jennifer Brier (Faculty)
90. Stephen Sherman (Student)
91. Peter Simon (Alumni)
92. Lisa Frohmann (Faculty)
93. Robert Markley (Faculty)
94. Jessica Greenberg (Faculty)
95. Linda Turner (Alum, 1963)
96. Micah Heumann (Alum, Faculty)
97. Nancy S. Bishop (UIC alum)
98. Mark "Shades" Hartstein (Community)
99. Robert Jacobs (Alum)
100. Rodney Clough (Alum)
[Any Jewish person interested in signing the letter should click here.]